HARARE city authorities have moved to perform some touch-ups on city spots in order to renew the splendour of the one-time beautiful city.
Authorities have put up a programme to green city traffic islands, replace pavements in the CBD, storm water drain clearance, illegal dumps clearance, repainting of council buildings and other activities.
City mayor Herbert Gomba said during the official launch of the Urban Renewal Programme Friday, that they were focusing on making the city attractive to lure investors.
“The urban renewal programme is meant to improve the lives of our residents, make it much safer, secure and comfortable.
“We need to attract investors to this city and there is no better way to do that than the way we appear to them,” said Gomba.
He added; “Let us focus on issues that can assist us to bring in investment. If we have got a denigrated city you can agree with me that there is no investment development.
“So we are appealing to all the stakeholders to say let us mobilise resources and focus on those issues that can make our city attractive.”
The urban renewal programme will bring land use changes like renovating of privately owned buildings.
“The City is blessed with a lot of historical buildings which can go a long way in attracting visitors in the country.
“We have not been taking care of these and some of them are in a sorry state. I know some of them are not in Council’s jurisdiction and I am calling on the owners to spruce up these buildings.
“The Urban renewal programme is meant to improve the face, not just of this city but the whole country. We have to start changing the state of the country and that only happens with Harare being the epicentre of all the Urban Renewal programmes.
“The urban renewal programme involves certain land use changes. In that regard, we have started the review of our master plan in order to suit this century and the aspiration of a world class city,” said Gomba.
City authorities are also working on the Mbare renewal programme which will see new blocks of flats, shopping mall, the rehabilitation of Mbare Musika and the bus terminus.
